Viatran awarded PILOT deal

WHEATFIELD — The Niagara County Industrial Development Agency Wednesday
granted a package of tax breaks to Viatran Corp., which plans to move from Grand
Island into a Wheatfield business park.

The agency board voted, 8-0, to approve a payment-in-lieu-of- taxes agreement
and sales tax breaks for the company, a manufacturer of pressure and level
measurement devices.

Viatran will be moving to and expanding a 20,000- square-foot building in
Calamar Development’s Woodlands Corporate Center off Shawnee Road. It has
pledged to add 25 jobs to its 46-person work force within three years.

IDA Chairman Henry M. Sloma called Viatran “a good company to have in
Niagara County.”

Viatran had been considering other locations, both inside and out of the
state, as well as out of the country, said Lawrence

D. Witul, the agency’s assistant director.

The company’s new site already had a PILOT agreement with the IDA, and the
board’s action Wednesday essentially cut out the property Viatran will be
leasing and restarted the timetable for the tax breaks already granted on that
site, Witul said.

The company currently is leasing space on Industrial Drive on Grand Island
from one of its chief competitors, according to an application made to the
agency.

The deal is a standard industrial PILOT, the terms of which include an 80
percent property tax abatement in the first two years of the agreement.

In about year nine or 10, there is a 50 percent property tax abatement; in
the 16th year, the property is completely back on the tax rolls.

In addition to the property tax breaks, Viatran also will be exempt from
paying sales tax on building materials.

Terms of Calamar’s existing PILOT were not changed, said IDA attorney Mark
Gabriele.

In other agency matters, the board:

• Approved a $40,000 loan to Jacobs Ladder LLC of North Tonawanda.

• Approved an agreement to rent about 2,500 square feet of space in Vantage
Center, the agency’s headquarters building on Lockport Road, to Total
Solutions. The company will pay $19,500 for an annual lease.